Opinion | Biden’s Asia policy will be controversial – and that’s a good thing

Name: As Biden enters White House, world leaders express ‘relief’ and welcome ‘friend’ and ‘mate’ back
Uploaded: 2021-01-25T00:45:07.000Z
Duration: 4 min 33 s
Description: As Biden enters White House, world leaders express ‘relief’ and welcome ‘friend’ and ‘mate’ back

On economic interdependence, China, Taiwan and North Korea, there is no way to avoid controversy while serving US interests

But the inability to please everyone also frees Biden from the straitjacket of historical expectations

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Van Jackson

Published: 8:45am, 25 Jan 2021Updated: 11:33am, 18 Feb 2021

Given the many and existential challenges to democracy that US President Joe Biden faces at home, it could be months, even years, before we see the contours of a strategy for Asia emerge from the administration. Yet, no matter how long it takes, America’s Asia policy cannot escape a basic truth – on the issues of gravest consequence in the region, there is no pleasing everyone.

There are, of course, some common-sense policies that will restore confidence in US competence – reinvesting in alliances, taking regional diplomacy seriously and, as Biden said, once again projecting “the power of our example” rather than what remains of American power. Biden and his team are favourably predisposed towards policies that are multilateral, institutional and pro-alliance.

Beyond this low-hanging fruit, however, there are four major issues where Biden is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On economic interdependence, China, Taiwan and North Korea, there is no way to avoid controversy while serving the American interest. This is a good thing. The inability to please everyone frees him from the straitjacket of historical expectations. It is only a question of whether he will realise it.

Washington politicians have mostly abandoned the old economic consensus favouring unfettered deregulation and trade liberalisation. Biden has a business-friendly track record and his campaign attracted a lot of corporate donors, but key constituencies in the Democratic Party, as well as self-styled “populist” parts of the Republican Party, are now hostile to free trade for its disproportionate enrichment of corporations versus harm to American workers.

There is no longer a taboo around domestic economic subsidies or industrial policy. The new-found ambivalence about neoliberal economics in Washington ensures Biden will be in no hurry to rejoin the transpacific trade deal, now called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

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As Biden enters White House, world leaders express ‘relief’ and welcome ‘friend’ and ‘mate’ back

From China’s perspective, that is great news. The CPTPP locks in the intraregional economic interdependence that has helped keep Asia peaceful for 40 years. And, in its current form, it does so without the United States. A win-win for Beijing.

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